UBS buys a Dutch firm, Merrill eyes ex-USSR and one HK manager goes green. UBS plans to acquire the Dutch independent VermogensGroep. The Swiss bank says the merger stands to make it "one of the premier wealth-management firms in the Netherlands."

Terms of the transaction weren't disclosed.

Going Dutch

"This move will establish our physical wealth-management presence in the Netherlands with a quality local investment platform in place," says Juerg Zeltner, head of UBS's wealth-management operations in northern, eastern and central Europe. "This will enable UBS to [serve] the Dutch market for wealthy individuals with immediate scale and the unique Wealth Control solution of VermogensGroep."

Amsterdam-based VermogensGroep manages $6.3 billion and administers another $16 billion for about 60 ultra-high-net-worth families and foundations. Its "Wealth Control" approach boils down to providing clients with "an overview of their wealth and insights into sources of risk and return," according to a blurb -- presumably provided by VermogensGroep -- in the Family Office Exchange 's online directory of wealth managers. (VermogensGroep's website is password-protected.)

Zeltner adds that UBS plans to use VermogensGroep "to create a comprehensive local wealth-management offering." This means UBS will offer banking services to VermogensGroep's legacy clients and, eventually, try to sponge up assets from clients a bit further down the wealth ladder than those the Dutch firm now targets.

"The combination of UBS's global offering and our expertise in the Dutch market will create a comprehensive wealth management platform our clients will benefit from," says VermogensGroep's chairman Maarten Rutgers.

The addition of VermogensGroep will more than double UBS' wealth-management headcount -- now at 33 -- in the Netherlands.

The Dutch word "vermogen" means "ability" with a secondary sense of "material fortune." A German word with a capital V and a couple of dots above the O means more or less the same things.

Zurich-based private bank EFG International recently agreed to buy Sycomore Gestion Privee as a way into the French wealth-management space.

Middle East

The physical shift of wealth-management personnel to the Gulf region continues.

Merrill Lynch has made veteran Amir Sadr head of its private-client operations in the Middle East. He replaces Makram Zaccour, who will stay on in an "advisory capacity" as chairman of the Merrill's Middle Eastern wealth-management business.

Sadr has been with Merrill for about 13 years. He'll be moving from London to Dubai in the U.A.E. to take up his new responsibilities.

"Amir will manage our existing Middle East offices, our new office in Riyadh [and] the ongoing expansion in the region," Eva Castillo, head of Merrill's European, Middle Eastern and African (EMEA) wealth-management business, wrote in a memo to colleagues. "Amir will continue to promote opportunities between Global Markets and Investment Banking and Global Wealth Management in the Middle East in order to strengthen [Merrill's] presence in the region."

Big wealth managers have been putting more people on the ground in the Middle East in recent years -- specifically on the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf where oil revenues and a construction boom have created a lot of very concentrated wealth.

The Middle East's population of people with at least $1 million in financial assets grew 17.5% last year, according to the 2008 World Wealth Report, which is published by Merrill and Capgemini. Their combined assets came to approximately $1.7 trillion.

The U.A.E. alone saw a 15.1% hike in its high-net-worth population to a total of about 78,000 in 2007. To get a sense of how concentrated the U.A.E.'s personal-wealth market is, consider that it has a population of just 5 million -- with an astonishing 85% of them non-citizen emigrants and guest workers.

In contrast, India, another market that getting a lot of attention from global wealth managers, had just 123,000 millionaires from a population of over 1 billion in 2007.

Emerging Europe

Merrill is also looking to expand in Russia and Turkey. The U.S. firm plans to open its first wealth-management office in Moscow and an additional office in Istanbul this summer. It is also looking to add teams in Greece and other countries in southeastern Europe.

At the latest World Wealth Report's Russian rollout last week, Jean-Marie Deluermoz, head of emerging markets in Merrill's wealth-management division, talked of having a "big recruitment budget" for Russia and the other former parts of the Soviet Union and for Greece and Turkey.

Russia's high-net-worth population increased 14.4% in 2007 to 136,000-- the tenth fastest growth rate in the world, according to the World Wealth Report.

Deluermoz, who has opened and managed wealth-management offices for Credit Suisse in Moscow and St. Petersburg, says Merrill plans to provide offshore banking to its Russian clientele in an attempt to avoid the red tape and delays that go with securing authorization to provide such services domestically.

The Royal Bank of Canada is also planning to open a private-client office Moscow.

Green

A Hong Kong-based investment firm called Lloyd George Management is trying to appeal to enviro-conscious Asians. It's out with a fund that invests in things like geothermal power in the Philippines, Indian wind turbines, Chinese sun batteries and Malaysia and Indonesia bio-fuel makers.

The firm says the "greening" of Asia -- particularly China -- is "the next theme" in the region.

Outsource

In Australia, London-based HSBC plans to provide fee-based investment products to unaffiliated intermediaries.

"We're identifying wealth-management areas that HSBC dominates overseas and bringing their products, systems and expertise to meet Australian demand, giving Australian investors access to international and emerging-market investment opportunities," says Stuart Davis, CEO of HSBC Australia.

Charles Genocchio, formerly Australian head of sales for Barclays, is in charge of the effort. -FWR

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